Below is a map of La Spezia province in Liguria. In many ways, La Spezia province is the most compelling of Liguria’s four provinces. Here you’ll find the vaunted villages of Le Cinque Terre (shown in red on the map), the romantic Gulf of Poets, and one of my favorite haunts, the Bocca di Magra, the mouth of the Magra river as it empties into the Ligurian Sea near the marble mountains behind Massa and Carrara. Go here for your tourist-free seafood dinner and a long stroll along the sea

La Spezia

The town of La Spezia is known as the “Gateway to the Cinque Terre.” Many visitors will change trains in La Spezia; often clogging binario uno or track one for the local train that runs along the coast toward Sestre Levante, Riomaggiore is the first stop for most trains. You can also get to the Cinque Terre from Genoa, taking regional trains toward La Spezia.

La Spezia train station has a Cinque Terre resource office where you can buy a Cinque Terre Card. The Cinque Terre Train Card offers unlimited transport on the La Spezia to Levanto section of railway. You can also purchase cards at the Cinque Terre Local Station. Read more about the Cinque Terre Cards

Castle Towns in La Spezia Province

Sarzana has a pair of restored castles. There’s one on the edge of town and another just a bit out in the country called Sarzanello.

Sarzana is a good place to take in a Medieval Festival; see our video of Medieval Sarzana. There’s a fine evening passeggiata,, after which you can tuck in to a fine meal at just about any of its (many) restaurants.

Calice al Cornoviglia is a rustic borgo spread around the Doria-Malaspina medieval castle: See the map and guide to Calice al Cornoviglia.

Click the thumbnail to see a larger map of Ligurian provinces and the major cities to visit in Liguria.

The eastern Ligurian provinces of La Spezia and Genoa are better known to tourists, despite the fact that La Spezia is seldom visited except to get on a train to the Cinque Terre, fulfilling its roll as “The gateway to the Cinque Terre.”

But other cities along the Italian Riviera are deserving of the tourist’s attention as well. Camogli, for example, is a colorful fishing village with fine seafood restaurants worth a couple of days (or a week or more for a relaxing vacation). Portofino is, as its name implies, one of the finest ports along the coast—and very expensive yachts are found exploiting its virtues. Porto Venere is for the rest of us.

In summer, you don’t need a car to get between these places—frequent ferries go to Portofino from Santa Margherita Ligure, Rapallo, and Camogli.

And for a little off-the-beaten-track exploration, try the area around the Bay of Poets, marked on the map. Sarzana is one of our favorite inland towns in Liguria. Lerici has a fine castle overlooking the port, it is a pleasant walk up the coast to San Terenzo, an old style Italian resort that was once home to romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.